Alderaan

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the fictional Star Wars planet. For the asterism, see Al-Dhira'. For other uses, see Alderaan (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Aldebaran or Alderman.
Alderaan
Star Wars location
Alderaan as it appears in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
First appearance
Last appearance
Bail Organa
  • Breha Organa
  • Raymus Antilles
  • Cara Dune
    • Moons1

    Alderaan (

    film series, as well as former Rebel shock trooper Cara Dune. In the original 1977 film,[a] Alderaan is destroyed by the Death Star's superlaser.[1]

    Depiction

    Early drafts of the Star Wars story include references to at least two planets which later evolved into the concept of Alderaan. Star Wars author George Lucas included a planet called Alderaan in early treatments; in The Star Wars (1973), Alderaan is a city-planet and the capital planet of the galaxy (prefiguring the planet Coruscant which later featured in the films). The draft script opens with a scene in which an "eerie blue-green" planet called Aquilae is threatened by an armed space fortress.[2]

    In Lucas' 1975 draft, Adventures of the Starkiller as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars, the capital planet of Alderaan is described as a

    Cloud City, as featured in the later sequel, The Empire Strikes Back.[5] In Lucas' third draft, the Imperial City of Alderaan has become the home world of the Sith Lords, and Darth Vader holds Princess Leia captive here. Lucas continued to hone his script, aided by screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz; names of planets and characters were revised and the narrative was improved, and by the fourth draft, scenes on the Imperial capital planet had been moved to a space station called the Death Star and the peaceful world destroyed by the Empire had taken the name Alderaan.[6]

    The on-screen depictions of Alderaan in the Star Wars films are scant; the distant planet is seen momentarily in Star Wars (1977) prior to its destruction, and in Revenge of the Sith (2005) a short scene shows a city amid a snow-covered, mountainous landscape.

    Film

    Mountain scenery in Grindelwald, Switzerland, used to depict Alderaan.
    Composite image based on a shot of Lake Thun, depicting Alderaan.
    Characters from Alderaan
    Bail Organa
    Ben Solo, the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia, and a "Prince of Alderaan", in the Star Wars sequel trilogy
    .

    Alderaan was originally featured in the first film, Star Wars, released in 1977. The opening scene depicts the capture of a small spaceship from Alderaan, the Tantive IV, by the Galactic Empire, and introduces the character of Princess Leia Organa, a princess of the Royal House of Alderaan who is played by Carrie Fisher.

    Alderaan appears in a later scene in the film, but is only shown on-screen in a distant view from space as the Empire's gigantic space station, the Death Star, moves into orbit around the planet. The battle station's commander, the

    superweapon to be fired at the planet as both a test of the superlaser at full power and as a message to the rest of the galaxy that the price of any type of resistance was extermination. Alderaan explodes instantly in a ball of fire. It is later shown that the shattered planet has been reduced to a cloud of asteroids as the Millennium Falcon spaceship attempts to visit the planet.[1]

    The destruction of Alderaan meant that it was not depicted in subsequent Star Wars films until the series of prequel films was produced. The planet made its first on-screen appearance since 1977 in

    Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) is seen piloting a starship to the planet's surface, which is shown as a mountainous, alpine region covered in snow. Landing his ship in a citadel among the mountains, he brings the newborn Leia to the royal palace and introduces her to his wife, Queen Breha. The backdrop for these scenes was created by compositing landscape footage of Grindelwald in Switzerland with CGI images of the city.[7]

    The planet is not featured in the 2016 film Rogue One, but the character Bail Organa makes an appearance, stating that he will return to Alderaan to wait for his daughter, Leia, to bring the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. This precedes the narrative of the 1977 film, A New Hope.[8] He dies when the Death Star destroys the planet.

    Television

    In an episode of the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars[1] entitled "Assassin", Ahsoka Tano has premonitions of Padmé's death on Alderaan.

    The mercenary Carasynthia "Cara" Dune, in The Mandalorian, is a former Republic Shock Trooper from Alderaan, according to Moff Gideon, which she later confirms.[9]

    The planet appeared in the first and sixth episodes of the streaming series Obi-Wan Kenobi, in scenes depicting the Organa's residence and its surroundings.

    Comics

    The comic series Star Wars: Princess Leia (2015) deals with Princess Leia and Evaan Verlaine (a female rebel pilot also native from Alderaan), rescuing survivors from Alderaan's destruction. It also features a brief flashback to Leia's childhood on the planet and her relationship with her adoptive father Senator Bail Organa.[10]

    In Star Wars #33 (2017), Leia tells Luke that sometimes she can see Alderaan among the stars as, from certain perspectives in the galaxy, its light has not ceased to emit.

    Books

    "We are Alderaan. We answer rage with wisdom. We answer fear with imagination. We answer rage with hope. If one life with a single drop of Alderaanian blood survive, Alderaan survives. If one life with a passion for Alderaanian creativity survives—Alderaan survives. And we are, each of us, important. And whatever happens, I bow to all of you—and to our future." ― Leia Organa[10]

    According to the book Skywalker: A Family at War by Kristin Baver, as the son of

    Ben Solo would have inherited the title of "Prince of Alderaan" if the planet and the royal House of Organa not been destroyed by his grandfather, Darth Vader, and Empire prior to his birth. Upon the birth of Ben Solo, he was considered a member of the Elder Houses of the galaxy, and entitled through hereditary succession to ceremonial titles, including "Supreme Governor of Birren", a small planet settled by Alderaanian explorers in the Inner Rim of the galaxy.[11][12]

    According to the 2016 novel

    Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983).[13][14][15]

    According to the 2018 novel Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel by Daniel José Older, which features a young Ben Solo, the boy was never formally raised or invested as a "Prince of Alderaan",[16] despite his mother leading the Alderaanian diaspora.[12] Out of the 2 billion inhabitants on Alderaan - with the modern-day populations of China and India having about 2.8 billion people combined - about 60,000 survived the destruction of the planet due to being outside of its star system at the time.[17] One of the survivors, Cara Dune, served as a marshal of the New Republic, presumably under Princess Leia, Ben Solo's mother, around 9 ABY.[18] Dune is played by Gina Carano in The Mandalorian.

    Legends

    Alderaan is mentioned frequently and also serves as a location in several works in the

    Great Sith War in 4000 BBY.[b]

    Radio drama

    The 1981

    radio drama adaptation of Star Wars features scenes set on Alderaan, in which Princess Leia discusses her mission to acquire the Death Star plans from agents of the Rebel Alliance with her father, Bail Organa (Prestor Organa). In a later scene, she is confronted by the Imperial commander Lord Tion and accused of treason.[19][20] It is established that Alderaan has a strict policy against weapons.[21]

    Novels

    In

    Caamas is devastated by the Galactic Empire
    .

    Alderaan is featured in a 1991 role-playing game, Graveyard of Alderaan (part of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game). It describes how, after the Clone Wars, Alderaan's massive war machine was dismantled, and the weapons were placed aboard an armory warship called Another Chance. The ship was programmed to continually jump through hyperspace until called home by the Alderanian Council. Bill Slavicsek, who wrote the game's sourcebook, later drew from it for his edition of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe.[22]

    Comics

    In the Dark Horse comic Dark Empire (1991–1992), New Alderaan is a Rebel Alliance colony planet populated by Alderaanians who were off-world when Alderaan was destroyed. Mon Mothma's daughter lives there.[23]

    Description

    Alderaan (Core Worlds, M12) illustrated on a map of the fictional Star Wars galaxy

    In Alan Dean Foster's 1976 novelization of the original film, Alderaan is described as a "small green gem of a world".[24] The planet appears more substantially in

    thranta.[28]

    Human life on the planet is evidenced by a number of cities, built to harmonize with the natural environment such as on canyon walls, on stilts along the shoreline or under the polar ice.

    First Chairman and Viceroy
    .

    Cultural analysis

    The destruction of Alderaan is considered by some as an artistic depiction of the danger of nuclear weapons during the Cold War[31] and some claim it is used as a pop-culture example of inadequate political and military action leading to negative effects.[32][33]

    See also

    References

    Footnotes

    1. ^ Later titled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
    2. ^ BBY: Before the Battle of Yavin depicted in A New Hope
    3. ^ According to A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, which draws from the radio drama of the original film, weapons were banned after the violence of the Clone Wars.[30]

    Citations

    1. ^ a b c "Databank: Alderaan". StarWars.com. Lucasfilm. Archived from the original on April 23, 2016. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
    2. ^ Rinzler 2008, pp. 351–400.
    3. ^ Hearn 2005, pp. 86–87.
    4. ^ Bouzereau 1998, pp. 67–68.
    5. ^ "An Annotated Guide to The Star Wars Portfolio by Ralph McQuarrie | StarWars.com". StarWars.com. 14 January 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
    6. ^ Hearn 2005, p. 99.
    7. ^ Stephens, Thomas (24 February 2012). "Giving Swiss film locations some direction". SwissInfo.ch. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
    8. ^ "Databank: Bail Organa". StarWars.com. Lucasfilm. Archived from the original on 8 April 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
    9. ^ "Chapter 8: Redemption". The Mandalorian. Season 1. Episode 8. 27 December 2019. Disney+.
    10. ^ a b "Comic Book Review – Star Wars: Princess Leia #1-5". 10 July 2015.
    11. ISBN 978-0744027310
      .
    12. ^
      ISBN 978-1101885260
      .
    13. ISBN 978-1368013789
      .
    14. ^ Trendacosta, Katharine (February 22, 2017). "Everything That Aftermath: Empire's End Reveals About the New Star Wars Universe". Gizmodo. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
    15. ISBN 978-1368003063
      .
    16. ISBN 978-0525622130
      .
    17. ^ Carey, Craig Robert (2003). Coruscant and the Core Worlds. Wizards of the Coast.
    18. ^ Baver, Kristin. "SWCC 2019: 9 Things We Learned from 'The Mandalorian' Panel". StarWars.com. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
    19. ISBN 9781780335834
      . Retrieved 18 January 2017.
    20. ISBN 9781852866280
      .
    21. ^ Monagle, Matthew (May 24, 2017). "Remembering the 'Star Wars' Radio Drama". ScreenCrush. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
    22. ^ Slavicsek 1994, pp. xii, 13.
    23. ^ Slavicsek 1994, p. 320.
    24. ISBN 978-0-345-34146-4
      .
    25. ^ a b c Anderson 1995, p. 189.
    26. ^ a b c d Wallace, Kolins & McKinney 1998, pp. 6–7.
    27. ^ Anderson 1995, pp. 193–94.
    28. ^ Anderson 1995, pp. 192, 195.
    29. ^ Anderson 1995, pp. 198–201.
    30. ^ Slavicsek 1994, p. 12.
    31. History
      . Retrieved December 30, 2018.
    32. ^ Ed. Michael A. Allen, Justin S. Vaughn. Poli Sci Fi: An Introduction to Political Science through Science Fiction // Routledge, 2016
    33. ^ Ed. Max Brooks, John Amble, ML Cavanaugh, Jaym Gates. Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict // Potomac Books, 2018

    Sources

    Further reading

    External links
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